One of the things that "Arrow" has always focused on is the team that operates with Oliver Queen. It started out being Oliver alone, finding the men on his father's list. He was then quickly joined by John Diggle, and they became a dynamic duo of their own. Then Felicity Smoak joined and they soon became the trinity that we know and love. Since then, multiple other vigilantes like Roy Harper, Laurel Lance, and Thea Queen joined, but none of them decided to stay. Then, in Season Five, it looked like we were finally getting some new members that would stay on the team for as long as they were needed. However, this season has done a lot to divide Team Arrow, and in the mid-season finale, they decided to split up after a lot of problems with trusting each other. I have been a big defender of "Arrow" for many years, even through Seasons Three and Four, which I thought had its momoents. However, Season Six is starting to go down a path that I don't know if I am going to be onboard with for much longer.
What the episode had going for it was the original team back together. Oliver is now alone again with Felicity and Diggle. These characters feel much more likable and they seem to function much better when it's only the three of them. It has been like that ever since Season One, so when they started adding more members to the team, it started to get a little bit crowded. I have always seen the trio as the best team, but "Arrow" has become a show that puts a lot of focus on working as a team. Seeing these three together offered a lot of great nostalgia that I hope will continue.
And that leads us into the recruits. I have enjoyed them throughout the seasons they have appeared in, but this episode made it very clear that the writers are not going in the best direction with these characters. Their entire arc in this episode felt very tagged on, and their arc going forward seems to be as tagged on. I don't like the idea of them going off and starting their own group, because I don't think they are interesting enough, nor skilled enough to do that. I am afraid that the writers are going to make them much too powerful, and make them into characters that they are not.
All of three of them were also very inconsistent throughout the episode. I commented on that in the last episode, but in this episode is pretty clear that the writers doesn't know how to write these characters at the moment. In one scene, we have Rene in a conflict with himself because of the things he did to Oliver, and then in the next scene, we have him be very angry at Oliver, for things that we already settled in the previous episode. The recruits has much reason to be angry at Oliver, but all the reasons comes across as flat because of very weak writing for these three characters.
I also have a huge problem with the cabal of antagonists we get. None of the characters have reasons to work with Cayden James. There are no motives for any of them besides the fact that they are all somehow connected to Team Arrow. The only character who actually could have a crudge against Oliver, is Anatoly. However, none of the other characters should have any reason to work with Cayden. There is also the fact that we still don't know what they are planning to do, and we have come to the point now, where Cayden James is becoming a useless character. At this point, he is simply one of Oliver's foe for the sake of Oliver having a foe. I don't appreciate the approach the writers are taking with their antagonists this season.
There is, however, an amazing action sequence towards the end of the episode at the port. The cinematography has been consistent when it comes to the action sequences this season, so that is one of the few things that still keeps this show interesting at this point.
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